The late '80's-thru-mid '90s drag/clam/cranes that still had clutches & brakes, roller-chain PTO, chain-drive crawlers, and Detroit 4-71N & 6-71N power with either friction plate clutch or torque converter, and Speed-O-Matic control.....The "D" was for Dragline. I read they both were rated at 1.5 cu. yd. bucket capacity. Since these were the "last mechanical versions" of the LS 98/108 series that were built with excavation in mind....Are there any owner's/former owner's opinions of how these late models compared to the earlier ('70's/'60's/'50's) versions? Was there anything left to be desired in these final versions?......besides the "tractor-type" Pipeliner crawlers? Post photos of these if you like.:Banghead
I worked for the dealer here in the early eighties when those machines were highly thought of as logging shovels. I only remember one unit that had a Detroit, all the others were Cummins. I never saw one without a torque converter. I have worked on a couple of flat pad machines that were cranes but in the woods they liked Cat track. Those machines were known as high walkers but the model names had TL on them. The pilot controls of the speed-o-matic system were nice for the shovels because you didn't have to feather anything. Basically drop the grapples on the log and dog the lift drum in and catch it on the brake when you were at the height you wanted. I didn't like that fact that you didn't have a lot of feel. If you needed touch as in just easing into a load I liked the manual controls of the Koehring better. You could tell the good operators from the bad real easy. You could smell the hot clutches at about the same time as you saw the machine when you were driving up. The Link-Belts were tough as well. If you couldn't pick a log on the grapple lines you just lowered the boom down to the log, dogged in the grapple and boomed up. Then a truck would back under the log and the operator would boom down. I have seen a flat pad machine with a tube boom being used for a clamshell machine. The operator was dredging a mill pond and couldn't get used to which brake and clutch to use. Every time he dropped the bucket he would try to slow the fall with the wrong brake and slam the bucket closed. The first couple of times I heard it I was startled, you could hear it all across the pond. After about ten minutes of that it just became irritating. In a lot of ways they were easier to work on than other cranes. The friction spiders could be pulled off in minutes and there was little to adjust to keep them working. On the other side though the gears and shafts were soft. Get a burr on the splines on any of the shafts and there was hell to pay to get the gear or spider back in place. The other bad thing was how heavy everything was with no room to pick. I know those machines claimed a lot of back problems. The down sizing of the trees basically killed them in the woods. Juice machines came in and took the skill of the line machine operators and threw it away.
thank you for the informative reply.....I see a lot of old Link-Belt (Speeder) machines still running and operable on youtube also.
I ran a few back in the day I didn't like the slotted console that would pinch your hands on the sides of you didn't use the top of the levers when you pulled them in to the detents. It really hurts. I also didn't like the long floor mounted master clutch lever on the left side of the operator's left leg. It was in the way of a fast escape in an emergency. They also, IMO, seem to have a less than average travel system, as far as longevity is concerned with the dogs, clutches and shaft bushings. The ones I ran in the early 70's and the late 90's were all fully manually and a real handful to figure out when I first got in the seat, since all the labels had long since wore off the numerous bars, levers, pedals, knobs and other controls. They were however, quick, reliable and fun to run, once I settled in tho, and I was able to do some quality sloping, dragline and hook work with them all. I like some Link Belt crawlers, especially the LS-718 that I spent 5 years running, in tower, coventional and the Heavy Lift ring configurations for my company.
Brings up another good question: Who made the best travelling crawlers in the old clutch/brake crane/drag/shovel industry (in your opinion)?
I never had a problem with a Bucyrus-Erie or the old Northwest. The American's, Manitowoc's, Link Belt's, and others all have let me down at some point, either a broken travel chains or track pads, tread adjusters, failed bushings on the travel shaft, steering clutches or travel dogs, etc.